Vessel seal



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W. L. CLARK ETAL.

VESSEL SEAL Filed April 1, 1922 gwoamtoz 5 mm 2k. v WWL y MM- Ent re era,

WALTER L. cLAEK, on NEW YORK, N. Y., Ann wrnroan .r. HAWKINS, or MONTCLAIR, EEw JEEsEY, ASSIGNORS 'ro AMEarcAiv nan Eo'r'rEE sEAL coEroEA'rIoE, or novEE, DELAWARE, A CORPORATION or DELAWARE. 1

VESSEL SEAL.

Application filed April 1,

To all whom it may concern! Be it known that we, WALTER TACLARK,

a, citizen of the United States, residin in the cit county, and State of New ork, and l ILEORDJ. HAWKINS, a citizen of the United States, residin at Montclair, in the county of Essex and tateof New Jersey,

have invented ce rtain new and useful Imrovements in Vessel Seals, of which the folowing is a specification.

This invention relates to bottle or vessel seals and has for its object to provide a vessel' seal. of improved construction for use on vessels of various kinds for still or carbonated liquids.

More specifically, our invention contemplates an improved vessel closure or cap which may be economically constructed, readily applied, which will make an efi'ective seal for liquids under high pressure but which nevertheless may be readily removed from the vessel without the use of a. special tool.

One of the objects of the present invention is to obviate the use of cork inserts or similar devices in caps for bottles containing liquids under pressure.

Another object of invention isto. provide a vessel closure of such construction that the pressure exerted by the contained liquid against the cap will render the seal more effective.

More specifically stated, the object of our invention is to provide an improved seal for a bottle having the neck thereof provided with a bead, said seal consisting of a malleable metal can having the lower edge of its flange swaged and drawn intd rigid en agement with the outer wall of said bea and bottle neck in such a way that'the portion in engagement with the bottle neck constitutes a, continuous anchoring skirt which is hardened into engagement with the bottle neck by conducting the swaging action on all parts of the skirt simultaneously.

v By the term drawn in the above statement, is meant the efiect of pulling or drawing down the metal produced by the swaging action applied to the skirt over an area extending downwardly from about twothirds of the way down on the head.

The drawings show a preferred embodi- 'ment of our invention.

Figure l is an axial section of a bottle cap 1922; Serial a. 548,726.

to the principles of our invention;

Figure 2 isan axial section of the upper end of a bottle to which the cap has been applied and after the completion of the sealing operation;

- igure 3 is a side elevation of the same; Figure 4 isan axial section similar to Figure 2, according to which a layer is interposed between the outer surface of the bottle and the inner surface of the cap;

Figure 5 is an axial section of another embodiment according to which the bottle cap is provided witha cork insert;

Flgure 6 is an axial section of'a modified construction according to which the vessel is provided with a protective cap.

Heretofore, the most usual form of bottle seal in common use has been the so.-called Crown cork and seal. In this closure, a flat Washer of cork is used as a gasket which after being pressed upon the mouth of the bottle or vesselyis held securely in position to maintain a hermetic seal by means of a metallic cap of relatively stiif metal. These caps are usually stamped from sheet steel and plated with tin. There are certain disadvantages to be met with in the use of hardened metal ,capsas compared to soft metal caps. Thus, the hardened metal caps require special tools forremoving the caps and after they have been removed they can be used again, thus enabling the dishonest refilling of a bottle. Soft metal caps on the other hand, may be torn ed by the fingers alone and inasmuch as they are destroyed by their removal, refilling of the bottle is prevented.

much less power (in the case of applicants cap) to apply them than do the hardened metal caps.

Referring more articularlyto the drawings, in the embo iment of our invention shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3, the bottle cap comprises a flat top wall 1,,a lateral flange which merges into the top wall, preferably, by a, rounded top corner 3 and a pair ofopsitely disposed depending lobes or finger grips 4. The bottle shown in the drawings, a standard type in the United States is provided with a rounded protuberant head 8 extending around the mouth thereof and with a constricted area 9 which constitutes 'applying a cap to a bottle, said cap is caused rows P.

.to assume its final form as it is being secured in position on the bottle. For this purpose, the malleable metal flan eis made of such depth as will allow sufficient metal to form an anchoring skirt 6 having rigid contact with the constricted area 9 or outer wall of the neck of said bottle. During the swaging. action which imparts the final form to the ca the circumferential portion of the flange w ich is to be condensed to form the anchoring skirt 6 is operated upon at all points simultaneously by the steel 'swaging jaws and at the end of their inward movements said jaws constitute substantially a continuous steel band. The effect of this operation is .to greatly increase the hardening efl'ectsupon the metal to a degree which is impossible to obtain with spinning, crimping or soft rubber squeezing 0 erations. It is to be noted also that the anc oring-skirt 6 which is condensed and hardened "in the manner above noted is seated around the neck 9 of the bottle and is thus made to rig idly engage the outer surface thereof around its smallest diameter and underneath the protuberant bead. That portion of the flange which is compressed under the bead or shoulder iconstitutes a hardened anchoring band or skirt which is substantially inelastic and rigidly engages the outer wall of the bottle neck and under surface of the bead.

By this method of closure, it will be noted that the interior pressure denoted by the ar- P. P. ets up resisting forces R. R. R. acting over the surface A-B, see Figure 2. It is obvious that the greater the value of the pressure P, the greater will be the rlrliagznitude of the resisting pressures R.

In this method of manufacturing bottle seals, thin aluminum sheets from .006 to .008 thick may be used for forming the bottle closure, and, if so desired, it may be drawn into the form of a preliminarily shaped cap, then applied to the mouth of the bottle and thereafter compressed to conform with the outer contour of the bottle or vessel mouth.

In the case of the Crown cork and seal and other similar devices deriving their seal from a cork or gasket compressed against the top of the mouth of the vessel-or bottle, a heavy pressure u on the seal and the bottle is necessary 1n or er to provide a tight seal of permanent character. This heavy pressure necessary to compress the cork or gasket ranges above 500 lbs. total pressure and may go as high as 1100 or 1200 lbs. which the bottle must support in the sealing process. The use of such heavy pressure causes a relativel large bottle breakage. It is to be noted t at in our invention no such prm- Levaeeo sure is required since no gasket or cork is necessarily used, the seal being on the under reduces the percentage of bottle breakage under the sealing machine to ractically' nothing. This feature is a marked improvement overthe other methods now and previously in use.

Our bottle seal is an improvement over I the Crown cork and seal and other similar devices now in common use, inasmuch as it dispenses with the need for the cork or gasket, and inasmuch as it seals more and more tightly as the interior pressure in the.

bottle or vessel increases.

When crimping aws are employed for securin the flange of a soft metal cap below t e bead on a vessel, the soft metal is left free to bulge outwardly in the spaces between the crimping jaws. The condensing pressure is therefore not continuously applied so that the desired degree of hardness is not obtained. Spinnin rolls on the other hand, when they travel around the flange of a soft metal cap, compress it at only one or two points at any. given instant, the metal bein freed from pressure at all other points. e are aware that soft rubber rings have been used for applying pressure on all parts of a soft metal flange at the same time but such a device is not capable of imparting any considerable harden1ng to the anchoring skirt of a soft metal If it is desired to still further increase the tightness of this seal, on account of slight roughnesses in the exterior of the bottle mouth, We employ the embodiment shown in Figures 4 and 5, 1n which a gasket forming material such as plastic gum, wax, balsam, gelatin, or other suitable material may beused for coating either the exterior contour of the bottle or vessel mouth or the interior of the skirt of the bottle seal, or for that matter the entire interior of the seal.

ner 7 being. pressed into snugly fittin enagement with the rounded bead 8 o the ottle lip. In order to provide an interposed gasket or seal formin layer. between the flange of the cap and t e outside con tour of the bottle neck, a layer 10 of gasket or seal forming material may be coated onto the inner wall of the cap or onto the exterior surface of the bottle prior to the cap applying operation.

It will be understood from the foregoing diption that the at: aged. portion of the.

cap or seal which is indicated between A. and B on Figure :2 has sealing contact with the outer circumferential wall of the vessel. This area of sealing contact is under tension due to the internal pressure P P P which tends to draw the flanged portion of the cap or seal into more intimate contour relation to the bead extending around the mouth of the vessel.

In the above description we do not debarourselves from using a coated stri of metal in the manufacture of the bottle or vessel closures herein described. The function of such plastic material is to perfect the seal between the metallic cap and the exterior of the mouth of the bottle or vessel in the way that a gasket is used.

V] e are aware that there are many substances which can and have been used for the purpose of a plastic material or gasket forming material. We prefer a material which is odorless, tasteless, insoluble in contents of the bottle or vessel, and of melting point higher than any temperature to which the bottle or vessel to be sealed will be subjected either in the course of bottling or in use thereafter.

In order that thin metal may be used for theclosure described above, we have discovered that by hardening the skirt of the cap by conducting the swaging action thereon at all points simultaneously, the strength of metal is materially increased.

If so desired the bottle seal or cap may be made of a relatively soft malleable form of aluminum and provided with tabs or cars or lobes whereby the cap maybe readily removed from the mouth of the bottle or vessel by grasping one of the lobes 4 between the thumb and forefinger and tearing circumferentially around the cap (see Figures 1, 3 and 4). A a

In contracting the diameter of the flared flange of'the cap from its form shown in Figure 1 down to its diameter as shown in Figures 2, 3, 5, or 6, we have discovered that the metal may be compressed without crimps or folds and when thus condensed by the steel swaging jaws acting simultaneously at all points around the circumfer' ,ence ofthe anchoring skirt, a relatively thin gage of metal can be employed for retaining liquids under relatively high pressures.

It is to be noted that in our form of construction a cork seal or other gasket may be used on the top of the. bottle mouth it so desired, but that it is not necessaryinasmuch as the sealing surface is really on the flank oi the metal mouth as indicated between the points A and B of Figure 2. lit

pose in the present embodiment, the tapering portion 17 of the bottle is provided with a thread 18 upon which is threaded the cape 19 of a closed protecting cap 20 which completely houses the closure.

The combination with av bottle or vessel having a head, of a malleable metal cap having the lower edge of its flange swaged and drawn into rigid engagement with the outer wall of said head and bottle neck, that portion in engagement with the bottle neck constituting a continuous anchorin skirt,- said skirt being hardened by the em swaging thereof into engagement with the bottle neck, said swaging action being conducted simultaneously on all parts of the skirt.

' WALTER L. CLARK.

WILFORD J. HAWKINS. 

